Before the Cherokees had fairly entered upon the high
road to progress and national unity, mutterings of the approaching Civil War
began to be heard even in this remote region. The excitement and bitterness
involved in the issues of the presidential election of 1860 ran like an
electric current throughout the length and breadth of Indian Territory
arousing the keenest interest among the entire population within its
boundaries, but particularly among the citizens of the five great civilized
tribes, the Choctaws, Chckasaws, Creeks, Semnoles and Cherokees. They had
all been removed from the southeast under circumstances similar to those
under which the Cherokees had been removed. All of them had just emerged
from the economic and political chaos into which they had been thrown by
removal, and begun to acquire, in the face of the greatest difficulties,
many of the arts and much of the science of civilization. They were fairly
prosperous, contented and on good terms with the Federal Government whose
treaties bound it to protect them from any foreign aggression.

All of the tribes were
slaveholders and had borrowed many of their other institutions, both
domestic and social, from south of Mason and Dixon's line. Many of their
citizens, too, were bound to the South by ties of blood and marriage. All of
these influences tended to strengthen the sympathy of the Indians for the
South and their interest in the cause of slavery.

Indian superintendents and agents
in the Indian Territory had almost all been southern and proslavery. Firmly
believing in the institution as of divine origin, and as an economic
blessing to both master and slave, they were intolerant of abolition
sentiments to the point of forbidding the teaching of them among the
Indians. Missionaries and school teachers who were especially zealous in the
dissemination of antislavery doctrines were summarily sent from the country.
One of them, Reverend John B. Jones, a Baptist missionary, who had devoted
much of his life to work among the Indians, was warned by the agent in
September, 1860, to leave the country within three weeks because of an
article published in a northern paper stating that he was engaged in
promulgating antislavery doctrines among his flock. Others were also
compelled to leave, and the excitement aroused by these incidents continued
to increase until the outbreak of the war and the beginning of actual
hostilities.

In the excitement and confusion in Washington during
the early months of the struggle the importance to the Union of holding the
loyalty of Indian Territory seems to have been underestimated, while the
government showed a strange lack of conscience towards its treaty
obligations to the Indians. With the South it was a different story. From
the very outset of the trouble, even before the organization of the
Confederacy, preliminary steps were taken to secure the sympathy and
cooperation of the tribes of the southwest. Federal agents of the Five
Tribes and Elias Rector, the head of the Southern Superintendency, began in
the early winter to take an active part in fortifying the minds of the
Indians against the incoming administration and arousing sympathy for the
southern cause. Douglas M. Cooper, agent of the Choctaws and Chickasaws and
an appointee of Buchanan, took advantage of the remoteness of his situation
to work openly for secession.

As a result the Chickasaw legislature, on January 5,
went so far to call an intertribal council should a political separation
between the North and the South take place. The suggestion met with favor
from all the Five Tribes except the Cherokees. Chief Ross objected to the
plan on the ground that the controversy between thg North and South was
strictly a white man's quarrel and no concern of the Indians. He was
overruled, however, and a council was called for February 17. The Choctaw
Council, influenced by Cooper, without waiting to see what its neighbors
would do, came out boldly on February 7 for the Confederacy on the ground
that their national affections, education and interests bound them
indissolubly in every way to the destiny of their neighbors of the South.

When the intertribal council met
ten days later at the Creek Agency neither the Choctaws nor Chickasaws were
represented. The Cherokee, Creek and Seminole delegations discussed the
situation at length and arrived at the conclusion to simply do nothing; to
keep quiet and comply with their treaty obligations. Mutual expressions of
good feeling were given and promises exchanged that whatever exigencies of
the future might arise, bound by a common destiny, they would act in concert
for the greatest good to all.

This action of the Indian tribes was watched with the
keenest interest by Arkansas, no part of the South being more vitally
concerned in their attitude at this crisis. The Cherokee and Choctaw Nations
hemmed in her whole western border, even encroaching, in the opinion of the
state, upon her rightful domain. The action of the Choctaws had been
gratifying. Cooperation of the Cherokees must be secured at all hazards.

More than three months before the
state seceded, Governor Rector wrote Chief Ross a very ingratiating letter,
calling attention to the fact that the Cherokees, in their institutions,
productions, latitude and natural sympathies, were allied to the common
brotherhood of slaveholding states, and assuring him that it was an
established fact that the Indian country was looked upon by the incoming
administration "as a fruitful field ripe for the harvest of Abolitionists,
freesoilers and northern mountebanks." He promised to give the Cherokees
protection in their exposed condition and to assume the monetary obligations
of the Federal Government to them if they would join the South in the
defense of her firesides, her honor, and her institutions.

Mr. Ross replied in a masterly
letter expressing the regret and the solicitude of the Cherokees for the
unhappy relations existing between the two sections of the country and
hoping for the restoration of peace and harmony, at the same time declaring,
in no uncertain terms, the loyalty of his people to the Federal Government.
The Cherokees, he reasoned, had placed themselves under the protection of
the United States and were bound to enter into no treaty with any foreign
power, neither with any individual nor citizen of any state. The faith of
the United States was solemnly pledged to protect them in their land titles
and all their individual rights and interests of person and property. The
Cherokees were inviolably allied with the United States in war and were
friends in peace. While their institutions, locality and natural sympathy
were unequivocally with the slaveholding states, and the social and
commercial intercourse between the Cherokee Nation and Arkansas were of
great importance to his people, these interests must be subordinated to the
higher one of his nation's honor.

Not satisfied with this reply,
citizens of western Arkansas and the commandant at Fort Smith brought strong
pressure to bear upon the chief, demanding to know on what ground he stood,
as they preferred an open enemy to a doubtful friend.7 To them he replied
that the Cherokees would take no part in the trouble. Weak, defenseless and
scattered over a large section of country in the pursuit of agricultural
life, without hostility to any state, and with friendly feeling to all, they
hoped to be allowed to remain neutral; for persons so gallantly tenacious of
their own rights would respect those of others. Being fully aware of the
defenseless condition of the Cherokees, their friends would surely not
expect them to destroy their national and individual rights and bring around
their hearthstones the horrors and desolation of a civil war prematurely and
unnecessarily. "I am—the Cherokees are your friends" he assured them, "but
we do not wish to be brought into the feud between yourselves and your
northern brethren. Our wish is for peace—peace with you and peace at home"8
But the old chief was crying "peace, peace!" when there was no peace.

The Confederate Provisional
Congress, doubtless urged on by Arkansas and Texas, and appreciating the
strategic position of Indian Territory in relation to Colorado and Kansas,
and its importance as a source of food supply, created a Bureau of Indian
Affairs as early as the middle of March, with an appropriation of $5,000 for
its support, and attached it to the War Department. David L. Hubbard, of
Alabama, was placed at the head with instruction to repair immediately to
the Indian country where he would make known to all the tribes the desire of
the Confederate states to protect and defend them against the rapacious and
avaricious designs of their common enemy whose real intention was to
emancipate their slaves and rob them of their lands.

Illness prevented Mr. Hubbard from
carrying out his intentions of going in person to the Indian Territory, but
he wrote to Chief Ross and, in addition to his instructions, reminded him
that nearly all the funds of the Cherokees, representing their annuities and
school funds, were invested in southern securities, which debts were already
forfeited unless the Cherokees joined the Confedracy.

To this, Chief Ross, replied in
most dignified and courteous language, repeating his reasons for holding a
position of neutrality, and assuring Mr. Hubbard that, if the institutions,
locality and long years of neighborly deportment and intercourse did not
suffice to assure him of the friendship of the Cherokees no instrument of
mere parchment could do so. "We have no cause to doubt the entire good faith
with which you would treat the Cherokee people, but neither have we any
cause to make war against the United States, or to believe that our treaties
will not be fulfilled and respected. At all events a decent regard to good
faith demands that we should not be the first to violate them." It was not
the business of the Cherokees, he thought, to determine the character of the
conflict going on in the states. It was their duty to keep themselves free
from entanglements, and afford no ground to either party to interfere with
their rights. As to the question of whether the Cherokees would receive
kinder treatment at the hands of. the South than could be expected from the
North, he remarked significantly, that the settled policy of acquiring
Indian lands had always been a favorite one with both sections, and but few
Indians north or south pressed their feet upon the soil of their fathers.

Meanwhile two events had taken
place destined to have important bearing upon Cherokee neutrality. In April
all the Federal troops were withdrawn from Indian Territory and it was
immediately occupied by the Confederacy and formed into the Military
District of Indian Territory, with the brave Texas Ranger, Benjamin F.
McCulloch, in command. With a regiment from each of the states, Arkansas,
Louisiana and Texas, and with instructions to raise additional regiments
among the Five Tribes to be attached to his command, he prepared to
establish headquarters at some suitable place in the Cherokee Nation.

The Knights of the Golden Circle,
in full sympathy with the plan, decided that the time was ripe for them to
act by raising the rebel flag over the capitol at Tahlequah, guarding their
intentions with the greatest secrecy.18 When they arrived on the appointed
day however, they found the flinty streets of the little town filled with
stonier faced full-bloods, gathered from all parts of the Cherokee Nation
for the purpose of checkmating them. Baffled and outwitted and fearing
violence from the determined Kituwahs, the Knights posted a messenger after
Mr. Ross at Park Hill, who was ignorant of what was on foot five miles away.
Accompanied by Mrs. Ross, a loyal Union sympathizer, he hastened to the
scene of action. There the Knights plied him with arguments and persuasions,
but all to no effect. The people presently dispersed quietly to their homes,
but not to the waving of the "Stars and Bars," nor to the music of the
"Bonnie Blue Flag."

Chief Ross, fearing the demoralizing effect of the
plan for establishing Confederate headquarters in the Cherokee Nation,
issued a proclamation, on May 17, counselling the people to cultivate peace
and harmony among themselves and to observe, in good faith, strict
neutrality towards the states threatening Civil War.

Finding his scheme firmly opposed
by Chief Ross, whom he was as yet unwilling to antagonize, General McCulloch
changed his plans and began mustering his forces at Fort Smith, just over
the Arkansas line.14 Determined, however, that the Cherokees should
eventually fight with the Confederacy, he was only biding his time.

It was at this period in the
crisis that the picturesque figure of Albert Pike appeared upon the Indian
horizon. He was a Bostonian by birth, had studied law at Harvard and taught
school in New England. Responding to the call of the west in early manhood,
he joined Bent's expedition to Santa Fe in 1832, and spent a few months in
New Mexico. Returning by way of Fort Smith he determined to settle in
Arkansas. Here he taught school, practiced law and engaged in literary
pursuits. Acquaintance with the Indians aroused a genuine interest in the
wrongs they had suffered at the hands of his own race, and he became the
avowed friend and advocate of the Red Man. When the Civil War broke out he
declared for secession and offered his services to the Confederacy in
effecting alliances with the tribes of the southwest. The Confederacy
promptly recognized that there were none better fitted for this task by
commissioning him to negotiate 'treaties with the nations of Indian
Territory.

As his mission was one that required promptness he set
out at once, stopping on the way for an interview with General McCulloch at
Fort Smith. Here a party of Cherokees representing the Knights of the Golden
Circle called upon him to find out whether the Confederatei states would
protect them against Mr. Ross and the Pin Indians if they should organize
and take up arms for the South.18 He assured them of Confederate protection
and arranged a meeting with them and their friends at the Creek Agency two
days after a conference which he expected to have with Chief Ross and
General McCulloch at Park Hill. Attended by a mounted escort in all the
splendor of uniform and military trappings he then set out for Indian
Territory. As the cavalcade swept down the line road to Evansville and on
towards the Cherokee capital its magnificent appearance was well designed to
impress the simple natives with the greatness of the government which it
represented. There are men and women still living who remember the occasion
as one of the most interesting and dramatic episodes of the war in that part
of the country.

Arriving at Park Hill somewhat in advance of his
attendants, General Pike was received by the Chief with his accustomed
hospitality and irreproachable courtesy. Here General McCulloch presently
joined him, and negotiations for a treaty of alliance were formally opened.
Chief Ross took a firm stand, repeating his determination to remain neutral
and his argument that it would be a cruel thing for the Confederacy to force
a weak and defenseless people into a quarrel not their own. While frankly
admitting that all their sentiments and feelings were on the side of the
South, he declared that he could not permit his people to become involved in
any way if he could prevent it. They were unable to shake the purpose of the
old Chief by force of argument or diplomatic strategy, and the conference
came to a close with the promise of General McCulloch to respect the
neutrality of the Cherokees, and to refrain from placing troops in their
nation, unless it became necessary in order to expel a Federal force or to
protect the Southern Cherokees.

Doubtless General McCulloch made
the promise in good faith. A few days later he wrote Mr. Ross again assuring
him of his intention of respecting the agreement of neutrality, but now
insisting that all Cherokees who were in favor of joining the Confederacy
should be allowed to organize into military companies as Home Guards for the
purpose of defending themselves in case of an invasion from the North.

Mr. Ross, too keen to be drawn
into a scheme which would virtually commit him to the Confederacy without
any of the advantages of a formal treaty, replied that he could not give his
consent to such a plan. It would not only violate Cherokee neutrality but
would place in their midst a band of organized and armed men not authorized
by Cherokee laws and not amenable to them.

Out of patience with what he
considered the irritating obstinancy of Mr. Ross, General McCulloch began
collecting troops at Sculleyville, in the northern part of the Choctaw
Nation near the Cherokee line, with the avowed purpose of intimidating the
loyal Cherokees and forcing Chief Ross into abandoning his position of
neutrality.

General Pike, on leaving Park Hill, pressed on to the
west where he busied himself in arranging treaties with the Choctaw and
Chickasaw Nations and with various bands of western Indians. The former,
after signing treaties, availed themselves of the privilege of sending
delegates to Richmond, and issued a proclamation to the neighboring nations
urging them to form an alliance, offensive and defensive, against Lincoln's
hordes of Kansas robbers. As the Confederate Commissioner made his way
westward arranging treaties with the Indians, and as the marshaling of
forces on the borders went forward with vigor, the position of the Cherokees
grew daily more precarious. The Creeks and the majority of the Seminoles
still remained faithful to their agreement of the previous winter, but the
Federal Government showed no intention of sending them relief and
protection.

Realizing that something must be done quickly, Chief
Rosa, with the support of Hopothleyohola, leader of the loyal Creeks, sent
out a call for an intertribal council to be held near Antelope Hills, in the
extreme western part of Indian Territory. The purpose was to weld the
western tribes into an independent Indian Confederacy with strength enough
to command respectful attention from both sections before Geeral Pike could
arrange treaties with them. The Council was held and the representatives
entered willingly into the proposed compact, but the ultimate purpose of the
plan was defeated by General Pike, who having received intimation of it,
succeeded in securing an agreement with a faction of the Creeks while their
representatives were in counci at Antelope Hills.

The failure of
the Indian Confederacy, the neglect of the loyal Indians by the Federal
Government and the concentration of Confederate forces on their border had
caused the loyal Cherokees keen disappointment and alarm. Then came news of
the Battle of Wilson Creek, with an exaggerated account of the discomfiture
of Union forces. McCulloch's army was marched back to the borders of the
Cherokee Nation and the Cherokees were compelled to decide promptly whether
they would take up arms for the North or the South.

Faced with this situation Chief Ross summoned his
Council together August 21, 1861, for the purpose of determining the most
available method of procedure. A call was sent out, summoning everyone to a
conference at Tahlequah. The situation was so critical and the tension of
feeling so highly strung that a large per cent of the voting population
responded. On the appointed day about four thousand Cherokee men were
assembled on the capitol square. The southern party, seeing their
opportunity, and encouraged by citizens of Arkansas, turned out in full
force and full arms. Agent Crawford took a prominent part in the meeting,
painting in glowing colors the advantages of secession to the tribe.

Chief Ross in his message to the
Council, after having justified his previous policy of neutrality on the
ground of good fath and expedency, declared that the Cherokees had at last
come to the parting of the ways. Neutrality was no longer possible. Since
they had been deserted by the Federal Government they owed no further
allegiance to it. There was no longer any reason to doubt that the Union was
dissolved: there was likewise no cause for hesitation as to the course the
tribe should pursue: their geographical position and domestic institutions
allied them, unquestionably, with the South.

The convention unanimously adopted
a resolution to abandon their relations with the Federal Government and to
form an alliance with the Confederacy if the latter would guarantee to them
the payment of an amount equal to their invested funds.

A message was forthwith dispatched
to General Pike to apprise him of the action of the Council and to invite
him to return to the Cherokee Nation for the purpose of arranging a treaty
with their government. He was met at Fort Gibson by Colonel Drew's regiment
of home guards composed chiefly of full-bloods and Pins, which had been
raised by order of the National Council, and conducted with some ceremony to
Park Hill where a treaty was arranged.

By this treaty the Confederate
states bound themselves to pay the Cherokees the sum of $250,000 on the
ratification of the treaty, to continue the annuities they had formerly
received from the United States and to indemnify them for all losses that
they Might suffer as a result of abrogating their treaties with the United
States. On the other hand, the Cherokees agreed to furnish all their
able-bodied men to the Confederate States for military service against the
United States, with the stipulation that their forces should not be required
to march outside of their own country without their consent.

On the same day the Cherokee
treaty was negotiated, representatives of the Osages, Senecas, Quapaws, and
Shawnees, by invitation of Chief Ross, met General Pike at Park Hill, where
they also arranged treaties of alliance with the Confederacy. Afterwards
they held a conference with Mr. Ross at his residence, smoked the great
peace pipe and renewed their agreements of eternal peace and friendship.

The Cherokees immediately began
preparations to maintain their new alliance. The regiment of Home Guards
under Colonel John Drew was now placed at the services of the Confederacy,
and a second regiment recruited and placed under the command of Colonel
Stand Watie. Chief Ross entered heartily and enthusiastically into the
spirit of the preparations, entertaining high hopes that all factional
differences would disappear and that his people would become united once
more when they joined forces to repel a common enemy. Just after the signing
of the Confederate treaty he had given his hand to Stand Watie as an
expression of his desire to heal the old breach, and Watie had accepted it
in all courtesy and good faith. No one realized more clearly than the old
Chief and the brilliant young warrior that the cost of war would be dear to
his people at any price. Yet, if the Cherokees could emerge from the smoke
of battle a united nation, the struggle would not have been without its
compensations.

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